In the current state of the Big Data or information age, many people face the problem of information overload. While the human cognitive capacity of processing information in a given time period is limited, more and more information is made available or accessible to ordinary users. In one instance, social networks, including the version of social networks designed for enterprise or other organizations, constantly feed the user with news or updates. Especially in the enterprise environments, while certain information can play a critical role in more efficient collaboration, a side effect is that a user can be very much distracted by irrelevant information as each piece of data takes time and attention to discern its value. In another instance, email as a communication tool has the same nature as such “feeds”, as incoming emails can constantly enter into a user's email box and requires constant attention, and in some cases, email has also evolved into a form of social network.
Furthermore, search engines can return hundreds or thousands of results, and can often mix what is relevant with what is not so relevant to the query. Meanwhile, the amount of personal data, such as files or folders or contacts or phone numbers, are also increasing day by day, and finding what is needed from a long list can be more and more difficult.
Products currently in the market only provide limited functionality in filtering irrelevant information. While such conventional methods can help reduce the amount of irrelevant information to a certain extent, more effective solutions to such problems are very much needed.